Like many teenage girls of the late 1960′s and early 1970′s, Garwood native Shirley Johnson got engaged to her high school sweetheart on graduation day.

Her wedding plans were cut short, however, when her fiancée turned out to be a nightmare rather than the man of her dreams.

“The minute he gave me my engagement ring, I became his possession,” said Johnson, who accused her ex-fiancée of being physically abusive.

A member of the Balusek family, who were well-known on the Texas rodeo circuit, Johnson looked to her horses for solace.

It was then that she found the strength to end her abusive situation.

“I felt powerful on this horse so why should I submit to this man,” said Johnson. “I thought if I could control my horse, I should be able to control (my fiancée).

That was one of Johnson’s earliest realizations that horses were good not just for riding, but also for therapy.

More than 20 years later, she is still using horses to provide therapy to herself and others.

“Horses give you strength,” said Johnson, 59, owner of Stable Life Counseling Center. “They can be empowering.”

After nine years of working as a counselor and parent liaison with the Victoria school district, Johnson opened Stable Life in 2003.

The counseling center focuses on helping clients with issues such as anger management, career counseling, domestic violence, sexual assault, parenting, post traumatic stress disorder and attention deficit disorder.

A number of different treatment approaches when working with clients including phone sessions, Christian counseling, relationship counseling, solution-focused therapy and most notably, equine or animal assisted counseling.

Equine therapy has been found to be effective in treating people with a wide spectrum of physical, behavioral, social, cognitive and psychological problems.

Building a relationship with an animal has been found to promote empathy; affection; trust; loyalty; the ability to be in control of a situation; increased self-esteem; improved learning, concentration; ability to take responsibility; motivation to set and achieve goals; and teamwork and problem solving, according to The Federation of Riding for the Disabled International .

In 2001, Johnson was a part of the first certification class for Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association.

Although equine therapy is an internationally accepted and certified area of counseling, Johnson said it has started to gain respect within the counseling community within just the last five years.

Though she has used other animals for therapy purposes, including a calf and her dog Pumpkin, Johnson favors using her horses – Rojo, Red, Penny and Snowball – because of their unique ability to read people.

“Horses don’t lie. Dogs do. Other animals do. You can beat a dog and abuse it, and it will still come for love. If you beat a horse, the horse won’t come back until you earn that trust again.”

Read the full post via Victoria Advocate | Horses aid in therapy, promote trust and empathy.